How Does Job Characterize God In The Book Of Job?

999 Words4 Pages
The book of Job tells a story of the relationship of a blameless man and the almighty being that he believes in, God. This particular book helps indirectly characterize God in the Old Testament. In the book of Job, God brags about his faithful servant Job, but Satan doubts that Job would stay faithful if he was not blessed as he was at the time. After being challenged by Satan, God allows harm to befall Job’s household and then allows pain to be inflicted upon Job. Job stays faithful through most of the sufferings, but in the end he curses the day he was born. Job then has a dialogue with God at the conclusion of the book. At the end of the dialogue, Job makes a statement of praise and repentance unto the Lord (Job 42 1:6). His statement…show more content…
There are three examples in particular that point to this. The first being when he is bragging about his “servant Job,” saying that Job is “blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” (Job 1:8). Satan pokes at God’s pride saying, if God was to “strike everything [Job] has, […] he will surely curse you to your face.” (Job 1:11) God accepts the challenge without the slightest hesitation. In this moment, God is so confident in his servant’s devotion to him that he is willing to let harm fall on his beloved Job just so that he can prove a point. Job proves God correct and does not ever “sin by charging God with wrongdoing.” (Job 1:22). The second example of God’s pride comes when Satan challenges him again. Satan seems unsatisfied with the first test and tells God to “strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.” (Job 2:4). God accepts the challenge again. Assuming that God loves Job, why would God let such harm come to him in order to prove a point? The only explanation that comes to mind is that God is a superior being, and he is allowed to bring glory to his name in any way he deems fit. The third example of God’s prideful behavior is in his dialogue with Job. At this point, Job has cursed the day of his birth (Job 3:3-19) and used a plethora of metaphors to represent how God intentionally causes his people misfortune (Job 9:21-25). This makes God very unhappy…show more content…
God intends for humans to praise him, no matter the circumstances. In this relationship, God is the almighty master and humans are his faithful servants. The first examples of this come in the beginning of the book. After Job has had all of his livestock and children taken from him, He praises the lord, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and The Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” (Job 1:21). In this action Job pleases the lord and “passes” the first test. This can be seen as an example of what human’s relationship with God should look like. When Job is facing hardship, he praises the Lord without question, but even though this is what the God/human relationship should look like, Job eventually falters. So, God seems to go a step further in the lesson he is teaching, by telling why humans should blindly glorify him. Examining the second half of Job’s repentance (42:5-6), Job sheds light on why we should blindly devote ourselves to the Lord. The difference in Job’s relationship with God before and after his hardships is illuminated in verse five when he says, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” He starts by using the past tense, referring to the time before God talked to him through the storm. He says that he has heard of him. I take this to mean that he knows about God and knows what is demanded of him as a servant

More about How Does Job Characterize God In The Book Of Job?

Open Document